Rob Bell Adding to Much Needed Voices of and for Diversity

   I like that when it comes to faith and discipleship I'm part of a movement that while seeking to live out the idea "another world is possible" is trying follow the example of Jesus Christ who lived and taught the values that would build it!! In seeking that I don't know that there's any well known author, leader or commentator whose every word I agree with but there are plenty having a go at 'following' and reading our source text 'The Bible' with the contextual and hermeneutic tools it deserves.

   The Uniting Church in Australia was formed as a movement, not a denomination, using it's Basis of Union document to lay out the 'where to from here' of what it believes was a call to the whole church [the whole creation really] if not at least the whole church in Australia. The BoU has lots to say but some highlights include the following where the bold type is my addition:

Part of Para 3

"The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself. The Church lives between the time of Christ’s death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come. On the way Christ feeds the Church with Word and Sacraments, and it has the gift of the Spirit in order that it may not lose the way."

Part of Para 4

"Christ who is present when he is preached among people is the Word of the God who acquits the guilty, who gives life to the dead and who brings into being what otherwise could not exist. Through human witness in word and action, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ reaches out to command people’s attention and awaken faith; he calls people into the fellowship of his sufferings, to be the disciples of a crucified Lord; in his own strange way Christ constitutes, rules and renews them as his Church."

Part of Para 5

"The Uniting Church acknowledges that the Church has received the books of the Old and New Testaments as unique prophetic and apostolic testimony, in which it hears the Word of God and by which its faith and obedience are nourished and regulated. When the Church preaches Jesus Christ, its message is controlled by the Biblical witnesses. The Word of God on whom salvation depends is to be heard and known from Scripture appropriated in the worshipping and witnessing life of the Church."

Part of Para 9

"The Uniting Church enters into unity with the Church throughout the ages by its use of the confessions known as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. The Uniting Church receives these as authoritative statements of the Catholic Faith, framed in the language of their day and used by Christians in many days, to declare and to guard

the right understanding of that faith. The Uniting Church commits its ministers and instructors to careful study of these creeds and to the discipline of interpreting their teaching in a later age. It commends to ministers and congregations their use for instruction in the faith, and their use in worship as acts of allegiance to the Holy Trinity."

Part of Para 11

"The Uniting Church acknowledges that God has never left the Church without faithful and scholarly interpreters of Scripture, or without those who have reflected deeply upon, and acted trustingly in obedience to, God’s living Word. In particular the Uniting Church enters into the inheritance of literary, historical and scientific enquiry which has characterised recent centuries, and gives thanks for the knowledge of God’s ways with humanity which are open to an informed faith. The Uniting Church lives within a world-wide fellowship of Churches in which it will learn to sharpen its understanding of the will and purpose of God by contact with contemporary thought. Within that fellowship the Uniting Church also stands in relation to contemporary societies in ways which will help it to understand its own nature and mission."

Part of Para 13

"The Uniting Church will thereafter provide for the exercise by men and women of the gifts God bestows upon them, and will order its life in response to God’s call to enter more fully into mission."

I would affirm the following about this:

- The Uniting Church represents a call to evolve and to seek unity in our diversity

- That's not unanimity but unity, looking for the core of what we are supposed to be about

- What we are supposed to be about is 'following Jesus'... disciples, apprentices, engaged in a mentored relationship

- The image of a 'pilgrim people' was an early focus as a way of shaping this new ventures identity

- For the UCA the Old & New Testament are received as unique prophetic and apostolic testimony, in which it hears the Word of God, going on though to speak of Jesus Christ as God's living word. This is another underpinning that acknowledges room for a diversity of theologies, sense of call, focus on issues and ways of living it out.

- Paragraph 9 marks a place for the inherited Creeds of the Church but also opens up a recognition of 'the language of it's day' and the task of 'interpreting their teaching in a later age.' My attitude here is that affirmations of faith or creeds are not just for repetition as to 'what we say we believe' but are a challenge to us that as said or held up as a statement, they call us to examine... well, what do you believe... better still in what do you place or shape your faith and who are you following. By your actions and words who are you saying Jesus is?

- We are called to shape our understanding of God by including contact with contemporary thought and in the context of contemporary society

- This means there will inevitably be tension between different ays of seeing God, different emphases and challenges around whether the living Word of God calls us to a different way of living out our faith

- This diversity is a huge challenge and also a distraction

- It's easy to badger and bully people with words like 'orthodox' or ideas around 'what the Bible says'... in many cases when Scripture talks about itself for example, it doesn't include the New Testament. At best at those times it was a collection of stories, some writings and some peoples lived experience

- It's important to represent that there's a spectrum of belief around this that includes conservatives and liberals but that labels are limiting in themselves

- The gospel is that God loves us, seeks to be in relationship with us and will do just about anything to let that be

- Adding the acronymn IMHO or the words it stands for is not respectful, it's dismissive... that humility needs to be reflected in what's actually written

- Discussions involve dialogue and listening

- Knowing what we seek to be faithful to is one thing, listening to understand how someone else is also seeking to be faithful is the place genuine dialogue starts

- Facebook might be social media, it's no place for complex theological discussions that lack authentic relationship

- Para 13 ends by 'nailing it' as far as the context that ought to be our focus [albeit that conversations and diversity along the way are by their nature tense and difficult]. If we shape who we are as 'church' to enter more fully into mission, we will be in places on the edge of our community, we will encounter the marginalised and here we will actually discover the identity of Christ, only by our relationships and struggle to know God's good news in that space. When a more restricted view than that is spoken loudly like a noisy gong or a clanging bell then others are drawn into broadening the discussion, into interacting with the intractable and distracted from what gives life and purpose... it's kinda sad really...

Hmmn, that's a long introduction to offering TWO interesting resources that aren't a short post, but are to be read and contemplated over time.... I have just ordered the audio book version of 'What We Talk About When We Talk About God' for car trips and I am interested in Rob Bell's ever expanding series on 'What the Bible is...' up to 48 posts at the time of this writing and you can start at number [1] here